New Food Economy: I visited Amazon’s new 4-star store-a glimpse into the big-data-enabled future of brick-and-mortar
When it opened Thursday in New York City, Amazon 4-star didn’t look all that different from other stores. But it demonstrates how insight into the shopping habits of millions of Americans gives Amazon a leg up on the old guard of brick-and-mortar retailers.
By Joe Fassler | Read more
Editor’s note: As Donald Trump addresses the U.N., and tariffs continue to make food news, we keep wondering how global trade disputes impact us at the individual level. This week, we’re publishing two pieces about the way that international trade agreements shape culture, agriculture, and cuisine on the human scale, from Oaxaca to California to Iran.
From diabetes to displacement: How NAFTA disrupted Mexican agriculture, food, and health
Alyshia Gálvez, author of Eating NAFTA, took us to La Morada in the Bronx—using the ingredients in a traditional Oaxacan meal to demonstrate how a free trade agreement forever changed Mexican people and cuisine.
By Kate Cox and Jessica Fu | Read more
Pistachio picker at work with his red pail during harvest season in Bronte, Sicily
As Trump defends sanctions at the U.N., one Iranian food—the pistachio—shows how deeply two nations’ fates are intertwined
America’s booming pistachio industry grew from a single Iranian seed. How decades of trade policy tell the story of the world’s beloved tree nut.
By Simran Sethi | Read more
Thinly sliced
Anything you want. Sludge reports that, after being appointed by President Trump to high-ranking positions in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), former lobbyists for the National Grocers Association remained in close touch with former colleagues as the agency decided whether or not to grant Maine a soda ban for SNAP recipients. You know what happened next: the agency turned down the request. Email obtained by Sludge show a suspiciously cozy relationship between lobbyists and the government on issues that could affect grocers’ and soft drink manufacturers’ bottom lines. (Remember the “harvest box”?) If that sounds like breaking the law, it normally would be. But White House counsel wrote ethics waivers to allow the officials to “work with their former employers in the food industry on the very issues they previously pushed in Washington when working for those employers.”
“Customer obsession.” Gizmodo got its hands on a 45-minute training video sent by Amazon to managers at Whole Foods stores. The video, which appears to have been developed initially for use in Amazon’s warehouses, instructs managers to be on the lookout for the use of words like “living wage,” or workers “who normally aren’t connected to each other suddenly hanging out together,” as warning signs of potential organizing activity. We can’t say for sure that the crudely animated video was sent in response to a new effort by Whole Foods workers to unionize stores chain-wide, as we reported earlier this month. But some of the language, while not actually illegal, raises eyebrows. For instance: Unions aren’t welcome at Amazon, the video explains, because “having a union could hurt innovation which could hurt customer obsession which could ultimately threaten the building’s continued existence.” Union busting? You decide.
They don’t already do that? When there’s a food recall, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—the federal agency responsible for the safety of the majority of the items stocked in grocery store shelves—will spread the word to consumers by putting out label information, product descriptions, and some photos or regional location information,. But they don’t do what would probably be most useful: actually name specific stores or store locations where affected products are being sold. That’s not because of some kind of technical limitation; instead, that information isn’t revealed because it’s a trade secret, “confidential between the supplier and retailer.” Now, that could change. According to a new rule proposed by FDA, the agency would be able to publish where contaminated food is being sold during “serious” recalls. “Knowing where a recalled product was sold during the most dangerous food recalls can be the difference between a consumer going to the hospital or not,” Commissioner Scott Gottlieb writes. To which we say: Duh.
Hurricane help. POLITICO reports that Hurricane Florence has inflicted $1.1 billion in damage on North Carolina farms, according to the state agriculture department, mostly in the form of row crop losses. Some help for those farmers may be on the way, however: The House of Representatives has passed a bill that includes $1.7 billion in relief for residents of the Carolinas. At Food and Power, Claire Kelloway notes that typical, non-emergency measures for farm relief, such as crop insurance and livestock indemnity programs, skew benefits towards the very largest producers—unlikely to help many North Carolina farmers who suffered damage to their organic produce and specialty crops.
McNatural. McDonald’s has vowed to remove artificial ingredients, like colors, flavors, and preservatives, from some of its most popular burgers, The Chicago Tribune reports. (McDonald’s pickles, however, will still contain preservatives.) This decision reflects a larger “clean label” trend that is sweeping the industry, as Americans demand more “clean” and “natural” foods. Maybe McDonald’s will listen to its workers next.
Retail therapy. Careful how you grab that shopping cart, friends. Walmart’s latest patent plans to collect biometric data, including heart rate, temperatures and stress levels to assess each customer’s “condition,” CB Insights reports. We’ve known for a while that Walmart was taking its in-store data collecting very seriously: New Food Economy’s H. Claire Brown reported earlier this summer on the company’s patent to track shopper movement by monitoring shopping cart wheels. This latest smart-cart patent, however, is being pitched as something more altruistic—a way to help flustered customers receive prompt medical attention. Because who wouldn’t get a little light-headed over those everyday low prices?
In California hospitals and prisons, vegan food is now a right, not a privilege
It’s a win for plant-based advocates across the state. But is the desired outcome better health or slimmer budgets?
By Sam Bloch | Read more